Pentire Point

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The view from Pentire Point, looking towards Polzeath and Trebetherick Point.

Pentire Point is a headland on the Atlantic North Coast of Cornwall, UK, at the estuary of the River Camel. The coastline is under the ownership of the National Trust, although the bulk of the headland itself belongs to Pentire Farm. The South West Coast Path closely follows the entire coastline of the headland, and sightseeing boat tours regularly travel along the coast from the nearby port of Padstow.

[edit] Geography

Pentire Point and the island of Newland, seen from Trebetherick Point.

Pentire Point extends from the village of Polzeath, with New Polzeath built along the clifftop at its southeastern corner. It then runs the length of the beach at Polzeath, Hayle Bay, and juts out pointing northwest into the Atlantic Ocean. This corner of the headland is Pentire Point itself, with a sheer 80 foot (24 m) cliff down into the Atlantic. (There are many rock climbing routes on the cliffs of Pentire.) About a mile (1 600 m) off the Point lies the tiny island of Newland.

The Rumps, site of Iron Age cliff fortifications.

At the Point, the coast swings northeast towards Rumps Point, more commonly known to locals as The Rumps. This unusual cliff formation somewhat resembles a dragon rising from the ocean, and is the site of Iron Age clifftop fortifications - the series of mound and ditch earthworks remain clearly visible today. Laurence Binyon wrote the poem For the Fallen, while sitting on The Rumps, Polseath [Polzeath], Cornwall, first published in The Times in September, 1914. The seven-verse poem honoured the World War I British war dead of that time and in particular the British Expeditionary Force, which had by then already had high casualty rates on the developing Western Front. The fourth verse from that poem has gained an existence of its own and is known today as "The Ode" - one that applies to all war dead:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old.

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

"The Ode" is still regularly recited on occasions such as Remembrance Day and Remembrance Sunday in the United Kingdom and Canada and ANZAC day in Australia and New Zealand, and adorns numerous war memorials including the The Cenotaph in Whitehall. It is customarially read by an old soldier. In Australia's Returned and Services Leagues, it is read out nightly at 6 p.m.

The tiny island of The Mouls lies just off The Rumps, and is a busy habitat for seabirds. The coast then once more turns the corner and heads southeast into Port Quin Bay